Inception
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: What is a dream? A dream is a fantasy. A product of one's own mind; of their wants and their desires. What is reality? The cold, bitter truth of life. But what happens when the dream becomes reality? Or is reality the dream? NarutoxHarem! Halo Crossover!


**A/N: DON'T KILL ME! The idea struck me after I finished playing Halo Reach. That, and I was watching the new hit series, Awake. Man, that show really does play with your head. And so I thought to myself, why not combine the two aspects? I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried such a unique approach when it has to do with fusing the two of them together, so...**

**...Here you go! **

**Also, on a side not, the site is currently not displaying any email, reviews, story/chapter alerts, etc. So if you read this story, dear reader, be sure and pass it to the next reader after you! **

**Ten-hut!**

_If it breathes...we can kill it._

_~Spartan 118_

**Dream a Dream **

Funny thing about cryo-stasis.

You didn't age a day. Not a single second. You were frozen, for days, months, sometimes even years, until someone finally popped the casket and let you out. That was the other thing about cryo. It gave you some fucked up dreams. Really fucked up dreams. The kind of shit you dreamed up when you were high on meth. Dreams of ninja, and jutsu. War, undead warriors, tailed beasts, and all kinds of screwy stuff.

In the cryo-dream, he was the underdog, an outcast who rose up and became something great. He overcame adversity; made a name for himself in war. He was loved and adored by everyone. Especially the ladies. Oh yes, the ladies...an entire harem of them! And they were all in love with him! It was a nice dream all things considered. But it was just that. A dream.

_Wasn't it?"_

The blackness clung to him. Tying him down. Holding him fast. His eyes burst open. He scrunched them shut, fighting the agony in his muscles. The screaming pain as the last of his synapses fired and he came back to himself. The dream started to fade, and light appeared he struggled. Light appeared in front of his eyes. Vapor vented, swirled, and began to dissipate. A voice came, as if from a great distance. It was female and matter-of-fact.

"Are you alright, Spartan 118?"

_Spartan?_

The calm method in which she_-how did he know it was a she?-_said this failed to communicate a sense of urgency, but he felt on edge regardless. He rolled his shoulders, as he worked sore and stiff muscles that hadn't moved in...how long? The memory escaped him.

Spartan 118 opened his eyes and gasped.

"I'm fine, EDI."

The synthesized voice dropped a few decibles; no lonver conveying a sense of urgency, rather, one of relief.

"I am glad...Naruto."

_Naruto?_

Ah.

That was his name, wasn't it?

It was.

The memories were coming back to him now. Or...at least he thought they were. _EDI._ Enhanced Defense Intelligence. An AI, an artificial intelligence wired within his mind and only his mind, compatible with him and no other. Her lifespan was indefinite, her wit, nearly incomparable to all others. Only her sister intelligence Cortana, had enough power to be her rival in that capacity. But EDI belonged to _him._ Just as Cortana belonged to...to...

He drew a blank as a voice blared out over the loudspeaker.

"Sorry for the quick thaw, guys-things are a bit hectic right now." A pause. "You alright there, spartan? The disorientation should pass quickly."

A second voice welcomed him back and it took him a moment to remember where he'd been prior to entering the cryotube. There had been a battle, a terrible battle, in which most, if not all of his allies, his brothers and sisters, had been killed. Men and women with whom he had been raised and trained since as long as he could remember unlike all the others with whom he served they were stranger to him, their faces hazy and indistinct in the wake of the memory of their loss. He couldn't remember their names, nor the faces, only that they'd been slain in overwhelming numbers. Oddly enough, this did not frighten him. What truly frightened him was this; he couldn't distinguish a dream from reality. The name Naruto, stuck out like a sore thumb in both, but this was his only certainty, the only positive in a blur of negative. In one world, he had been...what the hell was it again? A ninja? Something like that.

And in this...

With the memory, plus subtle changes to the gas mix that filled his lungs, came strength. He flexed his still limbs. He heard the voice say something about "freezer burn" and pushed himself up and out of the cryotube's chilly embrace. Briefly, he registered another pod beside his own; this one devoid of its occupant. Steam roiled from its surface a chilly fog perpetuating his vision. There was another.

He was not alone.

"God in heaven!"

The man was huge, nearly two-and-a-half meters tall. Encased in pearlescent green battle armor, the man looked like a figure from mythology-otherwordly and terrifying. The mirrored visor on his helmet made him all the more fearsome, a faceless, impassive soldier built for destruction and death. Another one stared back at him his reflection dared to show its face in that very same visor.

It was him.

He raised his hands and saw that they too, were wrapped in armor, though his was a great deal more compact and streamlined when compared to his brother in arms. Streaks of grey, black and _orange_ mottled across him and his suit; mired together in a strange myriad of colors. He stared at the armored titan in awe-_the man was a good head or so taller-_before a name came to him.

"John?" His own voice sounded strange, muffled. He felt claustrophobic. Fumbling at his helmet's restraints, he removed them, popping the catch and tearing the visor helmet free. Exposed his face reflected the stress he so clearly felt. His blue eyes were narrowed, his fair blond hair, matted against his forehead sheltering the crease against knitted brows thick with sweat.

The giant shifted a few centimeters, repositioning his weight to his left foot; folding broad arms across his chest. He was relaxed. At ease. Unfazed by the cryo. He reached out and slapped Naruto across the back; the blow causing the younger spartan to stagger. Despite his armor, Spartan 118 winced.

Naruto felt like he'd been stabbed.

_'Ouch! What the hell was that for? Was he trying to kill me?'_

"I believe that gesture was meant to stimulate camraderie." EDI chimed in plesantly, her voice ringing inside his neural link.

_'No kidding!'_

"Good to see you, up and about." When Spartan 117 finally spoke, his voice was like gravel. "Now put your helmet back on and lets get up to the bridge." Despite himself and the inherrent loyalty he felt toward his "brother" Naruto couldn't help but to question the order. But John was already moving, and he was forced to follow. Surely this wasn't a dream. He could feel his arms and legs now as the "freezer burn" left his limbs, leaving him sore and aching. He pushed past the pain and moved to match his gait with that of his sibling.

"What's going on?"

"The Pillar of Autumn is under heavy attack by Covenant forces." John answered, tilting his head in direction of the younger Spartan. "Probably why the Captain kicked us out of cryo so early." John continued to speak, but his words fell on deaf ears.

The word "Covenant" triggered a tidal wave of memories in Naruto's mind. Elites. Grunts. Jackals. An alien race determined to wipe humanity from the map. An enemy. He felt his entire body bristle at the very mention, at the very _thought_ of them. The bastards couldn't capture this ship not with EDI and...and who? Once again his memory failed him for the third time. Instead, he could only recall a girl with dark hair, lovely lavender eyes and the most adorable stutter_...the hell?_

Spartan 118 shook his head, struggling to distance himself from the foreign memories that plagued his mind. Where was his gun? He needed his gun. He had the sudden urge to kill something, anything, so long as it centered him and got him back to reality. But what if this wasn't reality? What if this was the dream and that girl_-what was her name-_was his reality?

"You okay?"

Naruto blinked, drawn from his reviere by an armored hand on the plating of his shoulder. John had stopped, his faceless visor focused in his direction. In Naruto's direction. It was the only certainty he had, Naruto realized. His name. He clung to it as though it were his last hope; his life raft in a sea of mangled memories and enigmatic emotions the like of which he'd never known. He couldn't tell his brother about this, of course. That was the crazy talking.

"I'm fine." He muttered, shrugging his sibling's hand aside. "Let's just get to the bridge."

EDI wasn't quite so convinced.

"Your brain patterns indicate anomalous activity-

_'I said I'm fine!'_

Naruto nodded and was about to move for the door when an explosion echoed through the cryo bay and carried him from his feet. His helmet struck the meal deck and for the smallest, most terrifying second, Naruto feared he might black out, feared what might await him on the other side should he lose consciousness for a second time. In the end, he almost wished he had blacked out.

An armored figured stormed through the smoke where the technician had once been, gleaming like a thousand suns. It saw the spartans and roared in a challenge. Before he could stand, before he could defend himself, before he could do anything at all, the creature ignited a blazing bright sword from the palm of its hand and charged. Naruto did the first thing that came to his mind. He put his hand together and focused. _Hard._ Nothing happened.

Nothing at all.

_Shit!_

The alien hurtled forward and brought its blade crashing down-

A spray of machine gun fire stopped the elite in its tracks and it toppled over, dead. The energy sword clattered from its fingertips, skittering across the floor to rest at the feet of the startled spartan. He certainly hadn't fired that last burst. His scanned the cryo chamber, searching for any sign of his saviour. In the end, he needn't have looked very far. He gave a small, nervous sounding laugh as his brother turned toward him, slotting a new clip into the exhausted magazine of his assault rifle.

_'Too close.'_ He shuddered.

"Your shields would have sustained the hit." EDI informed him matter-of-factly.

_Shields?_

"Are you not functioning properly?" The AI inquired of him. "Your shields would have allowed you to survive the blow and go on the offensive. And yet...you did not." She gave a small sound of confusion, or at least, he assumed it was confusion. The AI had a point. What had he been thinking? Putting his hands together in that strange symbol...like it would have done anything!

_'Gods, what the hell is wrong with me..._

Before his brother could contemplate the matter further, John lowered the assault rifle and extended a hand. Before his brother could so much as offer him an apology the rifle butt cracked him across the helmet, jerking his head to the side. The previous shoulder slap felt like a gentle clap compared to this blow.

"What the hell was that?" There was an undercurrent of anger in his voice as he clasped Naruto's forearm and hauled him upright. "Why didn't you defend yourself?" By some instinct, the blond managed to snag the sword before being hauled to his feet. It might come in handy. He ignored the verbal rebuke and offered his shoulders in recompense for his temerity. His brother made a noise caught somewhere between a groan and a snarl and stormed off. Naruto cast a gaze about the ruined cryo chamber, taking in all of the ruin and destruction; silently mourning the loss of the dead technicians as he followed after his brother.

Dream or not, the Covenant had just arrived.

**A/N:...And there you have it. Was Naruto's life as a shinobi really just the dream of a spartan? Or, perhaps, he's dreaming now? I will that to you, the reader to puzzle out. Which is real? Which is fake? Is it reality? Or is it illusion. And yes, for those of you who recall it, EDI is from Mass Effect. That will be one of the very few aspects from this universe that you see. Also I do hope you'll excuse Naruto's spartan number, as I DELIBERATELY made it one lower than the Master Chief. It implies that he looks up to John as something of an older brother. Also...**

**I intend no insult to the Naruto universe or its characters, nor the BRILLIANT artist that is Kishimoto. I was merely dialoguing the thought proccess of a character.**

**R&R! =D**


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